The risk of human-to-human transmission of the bird flu virus
exists, said a top Chinese medical expert on Wednesday.
The risk will increase if influenza viruses, such as those
involved in the recent outbreak of flu in north China, combine with
bird flu virus strains, said Zhong Nanshan, a renowned medical
expert and academician with the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
Scientists said two pigs on the Indonesian island of Bali had
produced a variation of the bird flu virus after they contracted
bird flu. The pigs acted as a kind of mixing vessel in which
genetic material from avian flu viruses combined with influenza
strains.
Because some pig organs are similar to human organs, a similar
risk could not be discounted where humans are concerned, said
Zhong.
The best way to prevent bird flu is to dispose of infected birds
as quickly as possible, establish stringent quarantine requirements
and treat human patients rapidly, said Zhong at a China-Japan
infection prevention conference in Guangzhou.
So far 269 people around the world have contracted bird flu and
163 of them have died, a mortality rate of over 60 percent, said
Zhong.
In China, 22 people have contracted the virus and 14 died.
A 37-year-old farmer named Li from Tunxi in east China's Anhui Province contracted the H5N1 strain of
bird flu in December -- the first human case reported on the
Chinese mainland this winter.
After being treated in hospital for symptoms of fever and
pneumonia, he was discharged on Jan. 6, according to the Ministry
of Health.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been affected by ordinary flu
this month in north China's Beijing and Tianjin municipalities but
it is expected that the number of infections will soon drop.
The December-January period is a peak period for influenza in
north China. Northeast China's Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces,
and northwestern Gansu and Shaanxi provinces have also seen a spike
in influenza cases.
(Xinhua News Agency January 25, 2007)